/\BOUT  MONEY 


BY  A  FARMER 


New  York  1891 


ABOUT  MONEY 


BY  A  FARMER 

*\)0  V  e  i  5*^  r  '■  ^  r'  *-  ^  » 


New  York  1891 


ABOUT  MONEY 


BY  A  FARMER 


The  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  money  really 
is,  and  as  to  what  constitutes  its  value,  has  always  been 
very  great.  If  we  search  economic  and  financial  author¬ 
ities,  we  only  find  different  opinions  of  different  men, 
whether  under  various  forms  of  government,  or  in  the 
same  government  at  different  times. 

If  general  agreement  be  necessary  to  establish  a 
truth,  the  money  question  is  an  open  question  to-day. 
The  greatest  financiers  and  statesmen  differ  widely  as 
to  what  money  is,  as  to  what  its  value  is  in  itself,  and 
as  to  the  kind  and  amount  needed  ;  to  say  nothing  of 
the  vast  array  of  opinions  about  the  use  and  misuse  of 
money. 

Therefore,  since  we  are  obliged  to  sail  upon  the  sea 
of  financial  uncertainty,  in  whose  vessel  shall  we  sail  ? 
Whose  chart  shall  we  adopt?  Whose  compass  shall 
we  steer  by,  and  what  port  do  we  propose  to  gain  ? 
These  are. very  grave  queries.  To  the  people  of  these 
United  States,  who  are  to-day  looked  upon  as  the  best 
pilots  for  common  humanity,  as  well  as  for  themselves, 
they  are  vitally  grave  indeed.  To  reason  together  and 
seek  the  truth  for  ourselves,  becomes  the  necessity  of 


4 


a  self-governing  people.  When  great  questions,  like 
this  one  about  money  and  finance,  come  up  for  solu¬ 
tion,  we  must  do  more  than  vote, — we  must  think. 

Among  the  many  notions  and  conclusions  about 
money,  there  is  none  more  prevalent  perhaps  than  that 
which  may  be  termed  the  miser  theory.  The  miser 
loves  money  for  itself  alone.  He  is  sure  that  it  has 
value  in  and  of  itself.  To  him,  money  is  the  power 
controlling  the  price  of  the  earth  and  all  the  produc¬ 
tions  thereof,  as  well  as  the  labor  and  sustenance  of 
mankind.  Therefore,  says  he,  it  is  the  most  precious 
thing  in  the  world,  and  I  love  it  above  all  things.  Is 
he  alone  in  this,  or  only  an  extremist  among  millions 
of  his  kind  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  his  opposite,  who  is  equally  an 
extremist,  says  :  Your  money  is  a  worthless  thing, 
with  no  intrinsic  value,  no  power  to  feed  or  clothe  or 
teach  mankind.  Therefore,  those  who  believe  that 
barter  (the  exchange  of  commodities  without  the  use 
of  money)  is  the  only  simple,  direct  and  true  way  of 
obtaining  what  we  cannot  produce  ourselves,  tell  us, 
‘  1  Money  cannot  make  us  brave,  wise,  good  or  happy  ; 
neither  can  it  cure  disease,  lengthen  life,  or  teach  us  to 
love  one  another.  ” 

They  ask  us  if  the  rich,  with  all  their  money,  fight 
the  battles  of  liberty,  sustain  government,  or  produce 
the  necessaries  of  life  for  mankind  ?  If  poor  men  can 
do  all  these  things  without  the  use  of  more  money 
than  gives  the  rich  power  to  enslave  them,  is  money 
anything  but  a  despicable  contrivance  for  the  mere 


5 


benefit  of  the  money -power  itself  ?  Then  they  go  on  to 
tell  us  how  it  corrupts  and  degrades  even  those  who 
have  the  most  of  it ;  telling  us  also  that  idolatry  can 
never  cease  while  men  create  a  god  to  whom,  if  they 
wish  to  live,  all  must  bow.  Hence  they  say  “We 
hate  money  !  ” 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  miser  loves,  and  the  bar- 
terist  hates  money.  In  them  we  have  the  two  extremes  of 
the  money  question,  without,  however,  obtaining  any 
satisfactory  notion  of  what  money  really  is.  But  if  it 
be  true  that,  “Extremes  right  themselves,”  then  we 
may  look  for  a  kernel  of  truth  somewhere  between  these 
two  opinions,  which  in  the  course  of  time  will  prove  a 
great  solvent  for  these  intolerant  extremists. 

And  now,  since  these  extremes  are  out  of  proportion 
and  unsatisfactory,  let  us  examine  the  means.  That 
good  money  is  the  best  thing  possible  for  effecting  ex¬ 
changes,  and  that  this  is  the  primary  object  of  all 
kinds  of  money  in  a  legitimate  sense,  cannot  be  denied 
by  any  reasonably  intelligent  person  who  has  studied 
the  subject  enough  to  form  a  conclusion.  Yet  the  fact 
that  all  things  valuable  are  estimated  in  dollars  and 
cents, — that  is,  that  they  are  worth  so  much  money — 
makes  it  appear  that  value  is  inherent  in  money,  and 
proceeds  from  it  alone.  Hence,  men  fall  into  the  error 
of  thinking  that  money,  by  common  consent  the  mere 
measure  of  value,  is  value  itself.  And  thus  in  the  minds 
of  men  value  and  money  have  become  synonymous  to 
such  an  extent  that  it  is  difficult  to  expose  the  fallacy 
without  raising  an  incredulous  smile. 


6 


It  is  currently  claimed  that  silver  and  gold  do  not 
merely  represent  values,  hut  that  they  are  value ;  be¬ 
cause,  we  are  told,  value  has  been  put  into  them,  by 
its  costing-  about  as  much  skill  and  labor  as  they 
are  worth  to  produce  them.  But  even  this  definition 
of  silver  and  gold  values  is  a  practical  admission  of 
the  fact  that,  after  all,  it  is  skill  and  labor  which  are 
value. 

But  these  moneys  into  which  so  much  skill  and  labor 
have  been  put  are  called  precious  metal.  Why?  Just 
because  they  represent  skill  and  labor.  This  reasoning 
fails  to  tell  us  why  each  dollar  that  the  miner  pans 
out,  whether  it  takes  him  a  minute  or  a  week,  has 
precisely  the  same  value.  Is  it  not  because  a  dollar’s 
worth  of  skill  and  labor  put  into  a  coined  dollar,  should 
last  a  thousand  years  and  pay  a  million  laborers  for 
as  much  skill  and  labor  at  each  transfer  as  it  originally 
took  to  produce  the  dollar  ? 

Why  should  the  miner’s  skill  and  labor  endure,  and 
the  farmer’s  bushel  of  wheat  which  cost  as  much  as 
these,  perish  and  be  forgotten  ?  Is  wheat  less  valuable 
or  less  useful  to  the  generations  of  men?  Should  it  be 
produced  and  reproduced  a  thousand  times  for  this 
same  dollar,  which  has  gone  the  rounds  of  change 
unchanged,  and  comes  along  each  year  proclaiming 
that  the  skill  and  labor  originally  put  into  it  are  still 
worth  as  much  as  a  bushel  of  wheat  ? 

These  queries  serve  to  show  us  that  it  is  not  the  skill 
and  labor  put  into  money  which  makes  it  pei’manently 
valuable.  And  yet  the  admission  on  the  part  of  coin- 


7 


lovers,  that  skill  and  labor  are  the  value  in  silver  and 
gold  coins,  makes  it  clear  that  even  they  do  not  be¬ 
lieve  that  these  metals  have  intrinsic  values  in  and  of 
themselves  at  all;  hence  all  can  agree  in  the  conclusion 
that  the  metal  or  material  out  of  which  money  is  made 
bears  such  small  comparison  to  all  the  value  which  it 
represents  that  it  is  hardly  worth  the  calculation  of 
its  cost.  Especially  is  this  true  when  we  take  into 
consideration  its  durability  in  comparison  with  the 
perishable  nature  of  nearly  if  not  quite  all  intrinsic 
values. 

It  may  therefore,  I  think,  be  laid  down  as  a  truth, 
that  the  material  out  of  which  money  is  made  is  not 
the  value  of  it.  Then,  if  the  material,  skill  and  labor 
required  to  produce  money  do  not  constitute  its  value, 
as  is  the  case  with  nearly  all  things  valuable,  in  what 
does  its  value  consist  ? 

Outside  of  the  force  and  influence  that  custom,  law 
and  speculation  may  exert  upon  it,  the  real  worth  and 
value  of  money  to  man  lies  undoubtedly  in  its  use  as  a 
medium  of  exchange. 

Money  represents  value  in  its  broadest  sense,  by 
and  through  the  common  consent  of  mankind ;  hence 
the  reason,  and  the  only  reason,  why  it  can  shift  the 
possession  of  things  valuable  from  one  owner  to  an¬ 
other.  Mankind  have  an  almost  universal  predilection 
for  the  use  of  silver  and  gold  as  money,  which  predi¬ 
lection,  together  with  a  sort  of  hereditary  and  pros¬ 
pective  idea  that  they  are,  and  always  will  be,  money, 


8 


lends  to  these  metals  a  certain  and  greater  value 
than  to  any  material  with  less  range  of  acceptance. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  this,  nations,  states  and  even 
counties,  may  have  within  their  own  boundaries,  and 
in  a  restricted  sense,  other  moneys  equally  good,  be¬ 
cause,  during  the  time  for  which  these  moneys  are 
issued  they  will  perform  all  the  functions  of  money,  if 
the  people  of  these  districts  honor  them  with  the  rep¬ 
resentations  of  value,  that  is,  their  property.  For 
property  is  value  ;  since  value  alone  is  the  essence  of 
any  and  all  kinds  of  propertjr.  So  it  turns  out  that 
commercial  property,  which  in  its  broadest  sense  in¬ 
cludes  everything  that  a  man  may  own  and  sell,  is 
value  ;  and  that  money  is  really  a  machine  which  man 
makes  and  uses  for  the  transferring  and  exchang¬ 
ing  of  property.  It  is,  moreover,  evident  that  by 
common  consent  he  attaches  the  power  of  value  to 
this  machine  named  money  to  cause  it  to  do  its  work  ; 
just  as  he  attaches  any  other  power  to  any  other  ma¬ 
chine  whatever,  to  cause  it  to  do  the  work  for  which  it 
was  designed.  Consequently,  the  “ miser  theory”  is 
an  entire  inversion  or  transposition  of  an  intrinsic 
value  to  an  extrinsic  representation  of  it  in  money 
which  he  falsely  concludes  is  value. 

Since  the  barterists’  theory  would  destroy  the 
oldest,  simplest  and  best  machine  that  man  has  ever 
invented  for  exchanging  property  ;  and  since  those 
ranging  between  these  two  extremes  appear  to  be  all 
at  sea  about  money  and  values,  we  trust  it  will  not 
seem  out  of  place  to  lay  down  our  own  theory  of  what 


9 


money  really  is.  At  all  events  we  will  proceed  to 
the  best  of  our  ability  to  give  our  definition  of 
money. 

Money  is  a  machine  which  may  be  constructed  of 
any  adequate  material  on  which  material  designs  are 
stamped  to  indicate  the  power  of  the  machine,  when 
going  at  full  capacity,  to  effect  an  exchange  of  pro¬ 
perty. 

There  is  no  other  power  adequate  to  make  the 
machine  named  money  go,  except  the  power  of  value; 
and  there  is  no  other  way  of  attaching  this  power  to 
that  machine  save  by  common  consent  of  those  having 
labor  or  property ;  for  without  these  essential  requi¬ 
sites  money  is  not  worth  the  material  of  which  it  is 
made.  Thus  it  is  only  this  mighty  and  intricate 
power  of  value,  attached  to  this  simple  and  intrinsi¬ 
cally  worthless  machinery  of  money  which  causes 
the  latter,  according  to  its  use  or  abuse,  to  affect 
mankind  for  weal  or  woe. 

But  all  the  power  of  all  the  labor  and  all  the 
property  in  all  the  world,  is  the  mightiest  power  over 
which  man  has  any  control.  Yet  this  power,  rest¬ 
less  as  the  wants  of  man,  is  at  once  the  potential 
and  kinetic,  the  latent  and  moving  energy  of  all  the 
machinery  of  money.  Therefore  let  man  beware  ! 
Let  statesmen  and  financiers  beware  !  Aye,  and  let 
government  beware  of  humanity’s  needs  and  the 
honest  rights  of  man ;  for  even  a  penny  is  a  powerful 
machine,  with  a  thousand  lives  and  a  million  honors 
aboard  of  it,  driving  across  the  world-wide  ocean  of 


10 


human  interests  to  the  beautiful  city  of  human  welfare. 
Let  not  the  dollar  run  down  the  penny,  nor  the  pound 
blockade  the  city  ;  for  the  many  must  sail  in  a  penny 
boat,  and  the  city  should  be  an  open  port. 

In  regard  to  the  material  out  of  which  money  should 
be  made  there  is  also  great  difference  of  opinion.  If 
there  did  not  exist  an  almost  universal  idea  that  silver 
and  gold  metal  is  peculiarly  money,  and  consequent^ 
an  almost  universal  acquiescence  in  its  use  as  a  repre¬ 
sentative  of  value  (which  idea  and  acquiescence  give 
it  the  precedence  it  now  possesses  over  all  other 
materials)  it  would  certainly  seem  that  the  cheapest 
and  best  material  accessible  to  all  men  and  nations  alike, 
would  surely  be  the  best  material  out  of  which  to  manu¬ 
facture  this  machine.  And  the  presumption  may  be 
ventured,  that  by  reason  of  their  cost,  even  silver  and 
gold  will  erelong  lose  their  prestige.  For  they  cannot 
escape  the  prime  object  in  all  other  economic  changes 
and  advancement;  which  is  to  cheapen  cost  and 
multiply  advantages. 

Moreover,  civilization  now  demands  a  universal 
medium  of  exchange  that  shall  bear  upon  its  face  the 
sign  of  its  universal  value  among  all  men.  But  this 
demand,  acquiesced  in  as  a  theory  by  the  most 
enlightened  people  of  all  nations,  conflicts  at  every 
point  with  existing  monetary  conditions.  Even  gold, 
as  a  universal  medium  of  exchange  and  standard  of 
value,  constantly  encounters  silver-using  peoples  and 
nations. 

And  even  if  all  could  agree  to  some  universal  parity 


11 


of  value  between  silver  and  gold,  then  each  nation 
would  most  certainly  claim  the  privilege  of  furnishing 
their  pro  rata  share  of  this  universal  money,  ere  they 
would  agree  to  honor  it.  And  this  again  would  bring 
up  before  each  nation  the  question  of  material  out 
of  which  to  make  their  money-machinery.  Then, 
naturally  enough,  those  countries  without  mines  of  the 
precious  metals  would  hardly  be  willing  to  help  out  a 
scheme  which  so  largely  favored  bullion  owners  in 
foreign  lands.  In  short,  such  nations  could  not  afford 
to  buy  these  over-valued  metals  in  order  to  have 
something  upon  which  to  represent  their  values. 

Query  :  Can  any  people  afford  to  do  this?  Is  it  not 
conceivable  that  our  inheritance  of  silver  and  gold  will 
become  a  bar  to  the  demands  of  our  advancing  civili¬ 
zation,  and  that  a  universal  money  of  civilization 
will  be  diametrically  opposed  to  our  inherited  money 
of  barbarism?  For  there  is  no  doubt  that  silver 
and  gold,  as  money,  are  the  legitimate  survivals  of 
the  ornamental  gew-gaws  worn  by  our  barbarian 
ancestors. 

But  to  substitute  other  money  for  our  barbarian  cur¬ 
rency  will  be  the  hardest  task,  if  not  the  greatest 
achievement,  of  an  advancing  civilization;  nor  is  it 
probable  that  this  can  be  accomplished  without  prepa¬ 
ration  and  education  of  a  world-wide  character.  In 
the  course  of  time  it  is  possible  that  civilized  nations 
will  agree  on  some  unit  or  standard  of  value  similar  to 
the  horse-power  standard,  or  to  any  other  employed 
for  estimating  the  capacity  of  machinery ;  and  will  use 


12 


this  unit,  say  the  work-power*  of  an  average  laborer 
for  any  convenient  length  of  time,  as  a  basis  for  all 
government  estimations  in  which  statements  of  value 
occur.  They  can  then  pass  on  to  its  use  in  their  cur¬ 
rency,  banking  and  clearing-house  transactions  of  all 
kinds,  until  their  people  become  familiar  with  it. 

This  would  be  an  education  universal  enough  in 
character  to  comprehend  the  first  necessary  steps.  For 
by  the  time  this  was  accomplished,  a  labor  unit,  and 
possibly  its  decimals,  would  have  become  common 
knowledge,  hence  a  common  bond  of  interest  to  the 
common  people  of  all  nations  ;  who  at  the  same  time 
would  learn  to  look  upon  labor,  the  true  producer  of  all 
earned  wealth,  as  the  proper  basis  of  all  values.  Thus 
the  tabor  capabilities,  or  work-power,  of  any  people 
would  become  the  acknowledged  exponent  of  the 
amount  of  money-machinery  necessary  to  the  business 
of  exchange.  In  the  same  way  a  farmer,  by  looking 
at  his  acres  of  grain,  can  estimate  the  machinery 
necessary  to  harvest  and  market  his  crop. 

The  material  for  making  money-machinery  would  be 
settled,  just  as  the  question  about  material  for  any 
other  machinery  is  settled.  For  that  material  would 
naturally  be  chosen  which  is  cheapest  and  best  suited 
to  the  purpose  for  which  money-machinery  is  designed. 

When  this  preparatory  education  is  accomplished,  it 

♦That  industry  which  furnishes  the  sustenance  for  our  whole  population,  and 
at  the  same  time  makes  additions  to  the  sum-total  of  our  wealth  as  a  nation,  may 
be  termed  the  work-power  of  our  whole  people;  while  that  labor  which  furnishes 
sustenance  and  additions  to  individuals  lives  and  property,  may  be  termed  the 
work-power  value  of  individuals. 


13 


will  only  be  necessary  to  fix  the  pro  rata  share  of 
the  different  governments,  in  order  to  establish  a  uni¬ 
versal  money  which  would  naturally  in  the  course  of 
time  supersede  all  other  money,  if  the  powers  now  in 
progress  should  continue  to  unify  the  business  and 
monetary  interests  of  all  nations. 

When  we  reflect  upon  the  wonderful  discoveries  and 
the  vast  range  of  inventions  now  giving  mankind  such 
powerful  control  in  the  development  of  the  world's  re¬ 
sources,  binding  together  and  making  common  the 
economic  interests  of  all  nations,  the  conclusion  is 
inevitable  that,  other  things  being  equal,  the  concomi¬ 
tant  of  this  mighty  material  movement  must  be  a  cor¬ 
responding  intellectual  improvement.  As  a  result  of 
this  improvement,  and  of  their  common  interest,  the 
nations  will  not  be  slow  to  grasp  the  significance  and 
utility  of  a  universal  medium  of  exchange. 

If  the  masses  of  mankind  ever  prove  wise  and 
powerful  enough  to  pass  upward  to  the  realization  of 
this  important  step  in  the  management  of  practical 
affairs,  “the  same  old  story  of  Wealth,  Vice,  Cor¬ 
ruption,  Barbarism  at  last,'’  may  not  have  its  repeti¬ 
tion  in  the  ages  to  come,  as  Byron  tells  us  it  has  had 
in  the  past. 

With  regard  to  the  amount,  use  and  kinds  of  money, 
and  their  relation  to  values,  with  a  plan  for  basing 
money  and  taxes  on  the  labor  and  property  values  of 
the  whole  people,  it  may  be  said  that  there  is  little 
doubt  that  the  world’s  assets  of  real  value  are  far 
below  tfieir  value  as  represented  by  money  and  credits 


14 


resting*  on  them.  That  is,  the  world’s  stock  of  these 
representatives  of  value  is  largely  a  watered  stock. 
And  this  watered  stock,  claiming  to  be  value,  consti¬ 
tutes  at  once  an  unperceived  and  ubiquitous  power  to 
enslave  all  producers  ofreal  values ;  because  it  furnishes 
a  means  by  which  these  and  the  values  they  create  can 
at  once  be  drawn  upon  and  made  responsible  for  inte¬ 
rest  and  dividends  on  this  watered  stock.  In  this 
might  be  found  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  hard  times  and 
depression  of  trade. 

However,  if  there  were  no  ways  of  withdrawing  the 
circulating  medium  of  the  world  from  its  rightful  uses 
and  legitimate  channels  of  trade  and  exchange,  it 
could  really  make  but  little  difference  and  work  no 
harm  to  any  class,  whether  the  amount  were  relatively 
great  or  small,  so  long  as  enough  was  kept  in  circula¬ 
tion  to  do  the  business  required.  But  while  we  are 
trying  to  supply  all  the  hoarders  in  the  world,  to  keep 
up  and  pay  up  the  interest  on  accumulating  debts  all 
over  the  world,  and  to  pay  dividends  to  all  manner  of 
trusts  and  combinations  which  are  taking  advantage 
of  the  capital  of  the  world,  it  is  utterly  impossible  to 
tell  what  ratio  money  should  bear  to  the  products  and 
trade  of  any  given  country.  It  is  equally  impossible  to 
fix  a  minimum  or  maximum  amount  in  correspondence 
with  the  population,  work-power  and  real  wealth  of 
any  people. 

Under  present  conditions  supply  and  demand  are 
made  the  mere  burglar-tools  of  capital.  For  are  they 
not  used  everywhere  to  unlock  combinations  of  it  for 


15 


the  exclusive  benefit  of  capitalists  ?  There  is  no  stand¬ 
ard  of  value,  neither  can  there  he  any  true  measure  of 
it,  while  money  is  made  a  gambling  machinery  for  the 
use  of  sharpers  instead  of  a  legitimate  machinery  for 
business  men. 

Whether  the  great  hue  and  cry  about  a  change  in 
gold  and  silver  values  means  anything  more  than  a 
scheme  to  corner  gold,  and  shuffle  silver  up  and  down 
on  the  gaming  hoards,  is  not  easy  to  determine.  If 
we  ask  what  it  means,  the  wise  ones  tell  us  that  an  ad¬ 
vancing  civilization  requires  a  “  single  gold  standard ;  ” 
and  if  we  ask  what  that  is, — “  Why  !  a  single  gold 
standard  means  a  single  gold  standard  of  gold  values ;  ” 
— they  answer,  with  a  degree  of  confidence  in  the  miser 
theory  of  value  which  nothing  hut  its  general  acceptance 
by  the  people  would  warrant. 

But  if  silver  is  really  becoming  too  plentiful,  as  our 
advocates  of  a  single  gold  standard  everywhere  pro¬ 
claim  ;  if,  as  they  tell  us,  it  is  becoming  a  drug  in  the 
market,  and  is  therefore  subject  to  “the  unwritten 
law  of  supply  and  demand ;  ”  if  all  this  be  true,  and 
silver  has  actually  become  a  mere  commodity,  have 
we  any  proof  that  gold  will  long  remain  the  thing  they 
conceive  it  to  be  ?  There  may  he  mountains  of  it  in  the 
earth,  that  man  will  yet  discover  and  bring  forth.  It 
may  clog  the  wheel  of  fortune,  and  cram  huge  coffers 
to  no  purpose,  as  silver  is  claimed  to  do.  What  then 
about  a  “single  gold  standard  of  gold”  to  measure 
money  by  ? 

Man  must  control  money  or  money  will  control  man. 


16 


The  tyrant  Greed  will  make  no  compromise  with  his 
slaves  to  poverty.  He  has  no  more  capacity  for  sym¬ 
pathy  than  has  the  money  he  grasps.  His  wants  are 
boundless,  but  the  power  of  money  to  fulfil  them  is 
only  less  great.  And  so  we  have  a  combination  ter¬ 
rible  to  cope  with. 

But  still,  man  must  control  money,  or  else  money 
will  control  man.  There  is  no  other  alternative.  We 
must  grapple  with  this  terrible  combination  of  greed 
and  power  now  threatening  all  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  humanity,  and  deal  with  money  as  a  subject,  not 
as  a  master  of  man;  as  something  for  our  use  and 
benefit,  and  not  as  something  to  be  used  for  its  own 
benefit.  The  reverse  action  of  our  monej^-machinerj7' 
has  counteracted  the  progressive  forces  of  civilization 
quite  long  enough. 

The  trouble,  ruin  and  distress  growing  out  of  combina¬ 
tions  of  capital  which  by  the  mere  power  of  money 
deprive  men  of  their  honest  possessions  are  every¬ 
where  crjung  out  against  this  robbery.  But  false 
notions  of  a  tolerance  due  to  wrongs  upheld  by  powerful 
interests,  blind  men  to  the  lives  ruined  and  fortunes 
blasted  by  the  moneyed  powers.  Neither  their  sym¬ 
pathy  nor  their  condemnation  is  stirred  to  remedial 
action,  until  too  late,  it  may  be,  for  anything  but 
blood  and  revolution. 

Even  a  large  part  of  the  apparent  progress  attri¬ 
buted  to  the  money-power  of  to-day  has,  after  all,  a 
retrograde  tendency,  if  the  common  good  to  be  the 
true  source  of  social  advancement.  Nor  can  it  be  oth- 


11 

erwise  when  individual  enterprise,  the  natural  parent 
of  industrj7,  economy  and  independence  among  the 
masses,  is  overpowered,  kept  back,  held  down  and 
crushed  out  of  existence,  in  every  department  of  in¬ 
dustry.  Moneyed  interests  in  which  they  have  no 
part,  nor  lot,  except  to  toil  in  them  from  day  to  day, 
control  the  lives  of  the  masses.  These  have  no  voice 
in  whose  vast  concerns  which  subject  the  laborers  of 
the  world  to  their  own  purposes  as  completely  as  any 
other  cause  which  has  ever  enslaved  man,  save  his 
ignorance  of  his  own  capabilities.  And  this  ignorance 
will  be  natural  result  of  any  continuous  course  of  em¬ 
ployment — no  matter  how  renumerative  in  a  moneyed 
sense — that  requires  no  individual  enterprise,  no  self- 
judging  powers,  and  no  independent  effort  to  attain 
success. 

The  reason  that  our  men  and  women  of  the  West 
have  been  a  power  in  the  world,  strong,  good  and  true 
in  body  and  in  mind,  is  because  their  liberty  to  con¬ 
trol  themselves  and  their  own  affairs  was  untrammeled. 
They  were  poor  and  had  to  work  hard,  but  they  over¬ 
came  much,  after  their  own  fashion ;  and  hence  they 
have  gained  a  success — if  not  in  the  acquirement  of 
fortune,  yet  as  men  and  women. 

No,  all  the  obstacles  man  has  to  cope  with  in  nature  ; 
all  the  circumstances  he  can  mould,  control,  or  ad¬ 
just  himself  to  endure,  in  short,  all  things  that  make  a 
full  and  conscious  life -experience,  belong  to  everyone 
by  right,  and  may  not  be  abridged  without  a  cor¬ 
responding  loss  to  life  and  manly  powers.  Experience 


18 


and  observation  verify  the  truth  that  men  long  hind¬ 
ered,  or  by  chance  estranged,  even  from  rough  ex¬ 
perience,  lack  that  essential  grip  upon  the  realities 
of  life  which  is  so  indispensable  to  success. 

If,  therefore,  we  allow  money  to  enslave  our  lives  by 
its  accumulating  powers ;  and  this  for  the  entire  benefit 
of  the  old  tyrant  greed  ;  then  we  deserve  to  be 
ground  down  and  sink  into  that  state  of  lethargy  in 
which  men  live  only  to  eat  and  breed ;  to  breed  an 
inane  posterity  whom  wild  barbarians  can  sweep  from 
off  the  earth  into  a  well-deserved  oblivion.  Man  then 
must  control  money,  or  money  will  control  man  to  his 
own  destruction. 

Not  but  that  money  has  its  uses,  and,  when  under 
wise  control  for  beneficial  purposes,  is  good  for  man. 
Like  any  other  machinery  that  is  good  for  anything, 
money  saves  time  and  labor,  aiding  man  to  make  an 
honest  living  more  easily  than  he  could  otherwise  do. 
But  like  any  other  useful  machinery  with  great  power, 
money  is  most  dangerous  unless  kept  under  careful, 
intelligent  and  constant  control,  by  those  concerned 
in  its  use  and  advantages. 

Now  how  shall  we  control  the  enormous  powers  of 
this  money-machinery  and  at  the  same  time  secure 
its  advantages?  This  is  a  question  of  supreme  im¬ 
portance,  for  the  solution  of  which  I  offer  the  following 
general  outlines  of  a  plan  which  it  seems  to  me  could 
be  made  practicable.  Money  of  all  kinds  is  a  machin¬ 
ery  whose  power  rests  in  the  common  consent  of  the 
people  who  use  it.  If  we  would  control  and  get  the 


19 


most  use  out  of  any  machinery,  it  is  necessary  for  it 
to  be  in  proportion  to,  and  in  adjustment  with,  the 
power  which  runs  it.  A  wagon  too  heavy  for  your 
team  is  a  continual  drag.  An  engine  too  light  for 
your  power  is  a  continual  menace.  It  is  the  same  with 
the  machinery  of  money  ;  this  also  should  be  in  propor¬ 
tion  to,  and  in  adjustment  with  the  power  that  runs  it, 
namely,  labor  and  property  values. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  situation  in  the  United  States. 
Each  individual’s  labor  and  property  are  his  own; 
and  each  individual  citizen  has  his  labor  and  property 
within  the  boundaries  of  some  township,  county  or 
State.  All  of  the  citizens  of  this  country  own  all  of  its 
labor  and  property,  and  agree,  as  integral  parts  of  the 
government,  to  sustain  it,  and  to  be  taxed  for  its  sup¬ 
port.  But  all  labor,  all  taxable  property,  everything 
that  we  earn  and  possess  for  its  value  has  a  cause,  and 
that  cause  may  be  termed  the  “work-power  ”  of  each 
individual,  or  of  the  aggregation  of  individuals  that 
makes  up  the  whole  or  any  sub-division  of  our  govern¬ 
ment.  Now  this  cause  of  value,  this  power  wrhich 
should  at  once  run  and  control  our  money-machinery, 
ought'  also  to  determine  the  proportional  amount  and 
adjustment  of  it  to  our  needs;  and  must  do  so  if  intel¬ 
ligent  control  is  better  than  blind  chance  or  unbridled 
desire. 

Under  this  plan  we  would  have  to  determine  the 
general  work-power  of  our  whole  people,  and  the  work- 
power  value  of  each  individual.  For  the  work-power, 
or  productive  capabilities  of  a  nation  are  also  its  equiv- 


alent  of  value  or  credit  in  an  economic  sense;  just  as 
the  labor  and  property  of  an  individual  form  his  basis 
of  value  or  credit  in  the  same  sense,  but  variously  pro¬ 
portioned  according*  to  his  possessions. 

When  we  have  determined  the  work-power  of  our 
whole  people,  it  will  stand  for  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  what  it  is,  namely,  our  national  credit.  And 
when  each  State,  county,  etc.,  has  determined  the 
same  thing  with  reference  to  their  different  popula¬ 
tions,  that  also  will  stand  for  their  several  credits. 
Now  as  each  of  the  sub-divisions  is  a  part  of  the  whole, 
each  would  bear  a  certain  proportion  to  the  whole,  so 
that  the  work-power  value  of  each  individual  can  be 
determined  by  our  assessors  and  census  reporters. 

When  this  is  done  let  us  issue  money  in  proportion 
to  our  national  credit  or  work-power.  Let  each  State 
bond  itself  to  the  United  States  Government  for  an 
amount  of  this  money  proportional  to  its  credit,  esti¬ 
mated  on  the  same  general  basis.  Let  each  county  do 
the  same  thing  with  reference  to  their  several  State 

governments  ;  and  so  on  down  to  the  smallest  subdi- 

# 

visions  of  local  self-government,  each  giving  a  bond 
to  their  superior  governments  in  proportion  to  their 
work-power  credits,  as  already  determined,  and  draw¬ 
ing  from  them  their  several  apportionments  of  money, 
to  be  distributed  among  their  individuals.  The  plan 
for  individual  apportionments  of  money  machinery 
among  our  entire  people,  according  to  their  work- 
power  and  real  values,  would  be  as  follows  :  The 
credit  of  each  individual  for  wrork-power  being 

0  4 


) 


21 

the  same  as  that  of  every  other  person  entitled 
to  and  credited  with  it  all  over  the  United  States, 
it  becomes  necessary  to  add  to  this  credit  what¬ 
ever  value  of  any  other  kind  any  one  possesses,  calling* 
it  his  u  work-power  value,”  since  under  this  plan  even 
property  will  be  estimated  in  terms  of  work-power. 

So  it  is  obvious  that  a  simple  work-power  would  be 
the  value  or  credit  of  a  laborer  without  property  or 
values  of  any  other  description  ;  while  work-power- 
value  would  always  include  or  be  some  other  kind  of 
value.  Now  let  everything  belonging  to  any  one  that 
can  be  shown  to  be  or  to  represent  real  value  have  its 
true  estimation  and  then  be  credited  to  the  individual 
who  owns  it ;  and  let  the  sum  total  of  such  credits  be 
considered  his  or  her  possessions,  just  as  they  now  are, 
and  placed  on  the  county  records  as  his  or  her  work- 
power  value  credit.  These  credits  would  be  each  man's 
own  actual  and  tangible  values.  Would  they  not? 

This  credit  of  each  individual  for  just  what  he  pos¬ 
sesses  in  actuality  would  then  become  his  bond  and 
collateral  security  for  a  pro  rata  share  of  the  money 
apportioned  to  his  county  or  district,  as  above  desig¬ 
nated  ;  and  he  would  have  the  right  to  take  this 
money  and  use  it  just  as  he  would  any  other  money, 
secured  and  made  good  by  him  and  his  values.  Thus 
we  should  have  a  money-machinery  for  the  people, 
based  upon  all  their  values,  and  distributed  among 
them. 

It  is  evident  that  the  expenses  of  government  must 
be  borne  by  the  people,  and,  as  we  all  know,  this  is 


22 


done  by  taxing*  us  in  some  way  or  other.  Under  this 
plan  I  would  propose  to  collect  all  revenue  and  taxes 
of  every  kind  directly  from  the  people.  And  to  do 
this,  let  each  person’s  credit-bond,  on  which,  as  we 
have  seen, he  would  draw  his  pro  rata  share  of  money, 
be  also  his  taxable  valuation  on  which  he  shall  pay  a 
rate  of  tax  sufficient  for  all  purposes. 

While  this  is,  in  fact,  a  tax  on  real  values,  it  might, 
under  our  plan,  be  considered  interest  on  representative 
values,  or  the  money  drawn  on  the  credit  of  real  values. 
Thus  our  credit  bond  would  at  once  determine  both 
the  amount  of  money  we  could  draw  and  the  amount 
of  taxes  we  should  have  to  pay  ;  and  wre  might  con¬ 
sider  that  the  government  was  loaning  us  money  and 
getting  its  interest  by  taxing  us  for  its  own  sup¬ 
port.  But  in  reality  it  would  be  money  and  taxation, 
based  on  our  own  powers  and  own  values,  labored  for 
and  produced  by  us. 

Under  this  plan  it  will  be  seen  that  each  individual 
would  pay  tax  on  the  amount  of  his  real  values  or 
credit  bond ;  and  each  county  and  State  would  pay 
tax  on  its  work-power  bond  or  its  apportionment  of 
money.  So  that  each  individual’s  rate  of  tax  could  be 
adjusted  by  both  local  and  general  requirements,  each 
countj7’s  rate  of  tax  could  be  adjusted  by  both  local  and 
general  requirements,  and  each  state’s  rate  of  tax 
could  be  adjusted  in  the  same  way,  and  still  leave  the 
rate  of  tax  that  we  should  each  and  all  have  to  pay  to 
our  general  government  the  same. 

Thus  the  same  uniformity  of  rate  as  between  indi- 


23 


viduals  of  any  district,  as  between  counties  in  any 
State,  and  as  between  the  several  States  of  the  Union, 
would  hold  throughout. 

After  the  first  general  adjustment  of  the  work-power 
of  the  whole  people  and  the  work-power  values  of  all 
individuals — the  first  apportionment  being  made  accord¬ 
ing  to  this  plan — each  tax-payer’s  average  valuation 
(for,  say  the  ten  years  between  readjustments  and  con¬ 
sequent  refunding  of  money,  perhaps  by  a  reissue),  would 
be  his  credit  bond  on  which  to  draw  money  the  sec¬ 
ond  time,  and  so  on  thereafter.  It  may  be  objected  that 
work-power  of  a  laborer,  or  of  any  one  without  pro¬ 
perty,  is  not  a  real  and  tangible  thing  on  which  to 
base  such  vast  calculations  as  are  here  involved.  But 
by  a  moment’s  reflection,  it  must  become  evident  that 
the  work-power  of  our  whole  body  politic  is  at  once 
the  real  source  and  tangible  prospect  of  all  wealth,  on 
which  both  present  and  future  calculations  of  every 
kind  must  rest. 

The  farm  produces,  the  factory  runs,  and  the  ship 
sails,  and  we  have  a  right  to  count  upon  their  doing  so 
next  year,  as  well  as  in  the  one  just  past.  And  they 
will  do  these  things  because  men  with  work-power 
will  be  there  to  till  the  farm,  run  the  factory,  and  sail 
the  ship.  On  no  other  basis  than  themselves  and 
ther  own  work-power  can  a  people  make  present  and 
future  calculations  for  their  own  benefit  in  an  economic 
sense. 

And  if  the  object  of  all  production  and  consumption 
rises  above  the  mere  doing  and  using  of  things  for 


24 


our  bodily  preservation  and  comfort  into  the  realm  of 
that  activity  which  finds  its  happiness  in  working  out 
principles  of  economy  for  the  benefit  and  elevation  of 
all  men,  there  can  be  no  possible  objection  to  a  plan  of 
finance  based  upon  the  cause  of  national  advancement 
than  which  there  is  no  surer  foundation  and  support 
of  the  thing  called  value  among  men. 

Remembering,  then,  that  our  whole  amount  of 
money-machinery  will  depend  upon  the  work-power  of 
the  whole  people ;  that  the  whole  amount  apportioned 
to  each  State  and  district  will  according  to  their  several 
populations  depend  upon  the  same  thing;  that  each 
individual’s  share  will  depend  upon  himself  and  his 
own  property  ;  that  upon  the  man  and  his  means  a  tax 
will  be  assessed  ;  that  this  tax  will  at  once  defray  his 
expenses  of  government  and  determine  the  rate  of 
interest  in  a  general  sense;  and  that  finally  this  money’s 
current  use  will  be  regulated  by  the  general  and  local 
value  of  labor  and  property,  just  as  it  is  now,  or  at  all 
events,  ought  to  be  ;*  remembering  all  this,  one  can 
hardly  help  being  struck  with  the  identity  of  interests 
which  such  an  arrangement  of  our  financial  affairs 
would  foster  in  the  whole  people.  While  it  involves  no 
change  in  the  Constitution  or  fundamental  law  and 
principles  of  our  government,  it  yet  gives  full  scope 
and  force  to  that  individual  enterprise  and  control  of 


♦This  is  a  general  plan,  without  specific  statements  in  regard  to  many  ques¬ 
tions  involved.  But  we  may  presume  that  the  specifications  and  details  will  alj 
fall  into  line  with  it,  just  as  every  part  of  our  Union  answers  to  every  other,  and 
more  or  Jess  perfectly  adapts  itself  to  the  whole. 


25 


ourselves  and  our  own  affairs,  upon  which  the  man¬ 
hood  and  honor  of  an  advancing-  civilization  must 
depend  for  its  success  among  men  who  have  reached  a 
self-governing  stage. 

With  all  the  advantages  of  this  arrangement  there 
would  he  nothing  sacrificed,  except  the  power  of  greed. 
Unfortunately,  the  effect  of  greed  upon  existing  mone¬ 
tary  conditions,  its  power  over  the  very  bread  of  men, 
and  its  terrible  tenacity  in  maintaining  its  own  advan¬ 
tages,  together  with  the  people’s  lack  of  thought  and 
information  on  the  subject,  form  a  great  barrier  to  the 
adoption  of  any  improvement  for  the  permanent  benefit 
of  the  whole  people. 

The  idea  so  generally  held  that  more  gold,  silver 
and  currency — in  short,  more  money  of  any  kind,  can 
under  existing  conditions  help  matters  permanently, 
or  even  for  any  great  length  of  time,  is  erroneous  and 
without  foundation  in  reason  or  in  experience.  More 
money  makes  more  speculations,  and  in  this  way  may 
furnish  temporary  relief ;  but  the  sharper  and  greedier 
speculators  will  gather  it  in  and  waiting  until  labor 
catches  up  again  and  begins  to  fetch  real  value.  Then 
speculation  goes  forth  to  reap  by  the  mere  force  of 
money  another  harvest,  and  crushes  individual  enter¬ 
prise  that  may  have  pushed  ahead  a  little. 

Thus  comes  the  alternations  of  “hard  times,”  and 
“  ease  in  money  matters,”  which  conditions  follow  one 
another  the  more  rapidly  as  devices  for  increasing 
money  become  more  plentiful. 

Since  money,  through  speculation,  possesses  the 


26 

power  to  add  to  money,  greed  is  thereby  enabled,  not 
only  to  hoard  more  and  more  of  it  and  to  retain  it  out 
of  use,  but  also  to  take  advantage  of  more  and  more 
opportunities  in  advance  of  labor.  It  is  enabled  to 
devour,  in  a  thousand  ways,  more  and  more  of  the  pro¬ 
ceeds  of  labor,  until  its  heartless  possessor  can  sit 
upon  the  throne  of  moneyed  success  and  dictate  to 
labor  how  long  it  shall  be  in  digging  a  grave  for  its 
own  liberty. 

No ;  just  enough  money-machinery  to  do  our  busi¬ 
ness  of  exchanging  with  is  all  we  can  afford  to  main¬ 
tain.  Beyond  this  it  goes  right  into  harvesting 
our  crops  of  labor  by  speculation,  and  securing  in  a 
lump  our  chances  for  individual  enterprise  before 
we  can  work  up  to  them.  The  silver  mountains  and 
the  golden  sands,  with  all  the  debts  that  they  can  pos¬ 
sibly  secure,  are  piling,  piling,  piling  up  on  top  of  us,  a 
load  too  terrible  to  contemplate.  No;  we  cannot  afford 
to  pay  such  enormous  amounts  of  watered  stock  of 
dollar  for  dollar,  on  the  mere  chance  of  working  it  out. 
It  will  not  pay  to  be  born  into  it ;  not  even  of  good 
parents.  Manhood  shrinks  from  slavey.  Therefore, 
we  must  control  money,  or  money  will  control  us.  I 
say  awe,”  because  I  believe  that  a  self-governing 
people  will  naturally  come  up  to  these  great  questions 
affecting  the  welfare  of  the  masses  of  men,  in  advance 
of  governments  whose  people  are  less  progressive,  or 
else  have  more  to  contend  with.  We  have  been  inno¬ 
vators  from  the  beginning,  and  will  continue  to  defend 
the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  common  people  against 


27 


long-established  and  powerful  opponents  so  long  as  we 
continue  to  progress ;  for  such  as  these  must  build  the 
kingdom  of  liberty  on  earth.  But  we  cannot  expect  to 
accomplish  it  without  trials,  and,  it  may  be,  great 
tribulation. 

While  prudence  is  the  great  law  of  self-defense  in 
political  action  of  all  kinds,  it  is  neither  wise  nor  safe 
to  be  cowardly.  And  while  there  may  be  good  and 
great  men,  both  wealthy  and  powerful,  whom  the 
masses  may  trust  with  their  political  affairs,  there  is 
no  self-governing  prudence  at  all  in  that  blind  trust  in 
the  name  and  fame  of  men  or  parties,  by  those  masses 
who  are  unthinking  partisans.  It  is  the  cowardice  of 
ignorance  that  kills.  The  ballot  in  such  hands  as  these 
is  the  mere  semblance  of  liberty,  to  make  men  slaves 
of  passion  and  prejudice.  The  ballot  in  such  hands  as 
these  is  the  cloud  hanging  over  us  all  the  time  and 
everywhere;  the  dark  mask  among  us,  and  the  black 
plague  within  us,  that  threatens  the  life  of  our  insti¬ 
tutions  from  their  very  source. 

If  the  masses  would  inform  themselves  and  think:  be 

«  / 

honest  with  themselves  and  with  their  own  convictions, 
there  is  no  power  on  earth  strong  enough  to  abridge 
their  liberties,  much  less  to  make  them  slaves,  even  to 
the  great  god  of  gold  himself. 

With  reference  to  the  bi-metallic  controversy  it  may 
be  said  that  there  are  certain  phases  of  it  which  are 
either  not  apparent,  or  else  are  purposely  kept  in  the 
background.  There  is  much  in  it  that  is  not  counted 
on  by  the  tyrant  greed  and  money-power  generally  ; 


28 


I 


which  latter  is  bound  either  to  follow  the  former’s  lead 
or  suffer  disaster ;  a  hard  lot  that  few  will  choose,  even 
for  honor’s  sake. 

That  the  mountains  of  debt  named  value,  and  draw¬ 
ing  interest,  are  crushing  the  foundations  of  labor 
and  real  values,  and  are  bound,  from  the  sheer  weight 
of  themselves,  to  fall,  must  seem  inevitable  to  any  one 
who  will  take  the  pains  to  compare  representative 
values  and  interest-drawing  debts  of  all  kinds  with 
real  values  and  productive  power ;  not  forgetting  to 
deduct  from  real  values  the  cost  of  living, 

Although  an  overplus  of  money  and  representatives 
of  value  always  gives  to  the  tyrant  greed  and  his 
satellites  (the  speculators,  hoarders  and  idle,  non¬ 
producing  classes)  more  and  better  opportunities  to 
grasp  in  advance  the  plant  which  nature  has  stored  up 
for  all  men — such  as  lands,  mines  and  privileges  of 
various  kinds — although  credit  money  in  great  quanti¬ 
ties,  brings  golden  harvests  to  speculators  ;  even  they 
are  becoming  aware  that  some  day  there  is  sure  to  be 
a  mighty  crash. 

And  though,  upon  the  whole,  the  money-power  is 
tremendously  greedy,  it  is  also  a  cautious  power  ;  and, 
its  astuteness  generally  keeps  pace  with  its  greed.  If  it 
could  be  sure  that  men  would  continue  rounding  up 
their  backs  beneath  their  present  weight  of  debts,  and 
that  the  labor-world,  by  placing  their  broad  shoulders 
square  against  all  this,  could  still  plod  on  beneath  the 
silver  mountains  coming  down  upon  them,  it  never 
would  cry,  “Hold,  enough!”  But  this  astute  and 


cautious  power  is  not  sure  of  this  by  any  means,  and 
hence  it  does  cry,  “Hold,  enough  of  silver  money, 
lest  it  cheapen  gold  !”  And  though  to  poor  men  it 
may  seem  absurd,  yet  certain  facts  regarding  money 
have  a  tendency  to  strengthen  such  a  fear. 

The  fact  that  there  are  more  money -seeking,  solid, 
interest-paying  investments  than  can  be  placed,  is 
significant.  The  fact  that  trusted  securities  of  all 
kinds  are  gradually  but  surely  reducing  their  interests 
is  significant.  And  the  further  fact  that  to  capitalists 
everywhere  their  money,  over  and  above  what  they 
can  use  in  supplying  their  own  wants,  is  becoming  a 
dead-weight  in  their  coffers,  useless  to  the  world  as 
it  is  profitless  to  themselves,  proves  that  money  is  not 
value  nor  the  ultimate  power  on  which  men  really 
depend  for  the  accumulation  of  value,  even  in  its  re¬ 
presentative  forms.  It  furthermore  proves  that  money, 
like  anything  else  produced  and  used  by  man,  can  be¬ 
come  too  plentiful  to  be  profitable  to  its  holders ;  and 
like  anything  else  which  supply  and  demand  regulate, 
will  compete  with  itself  in  the  markets  of  the  world,  if 
it  cannot  be  made  scarce  by  hoarding  or  contraction, 
or  both  of  these. 

Therefore  the  money-powers  say, — Stop  the  unne¬ 
cessary  supply  of  silver.  Shrink,  contract  and  refund, 
that  our  money  may  become  more  profitable,  and  at 
the  same  time  make  the  interest-bearing  debts  look 
smaller  to  the  people,  who  are  beginning  to  understand 
that  they  have  public  interests  and  debts  to  pay,  as 
well  as  their  private  ones. 


BO 


No,  this  move  against  silver  is  not  a  mere  caprice  of 
the  money-power  without  definite  cause  of  object ;  al¬ 
though  greed,  seeing  the  gain  in  it,  by  its  haste  makes 
it  seem  so.  The  move  began  in  Germany,  where  the 
plethora  of  capital  was  felt  the  most,  and  spread,  with 
little  opposition  from  the  masses,  wherever  the  increase 
of  real  values  over  subsistence  is  too  small  to  guar¬ 
antee  much  increase  of  money  or  interest. 

But  here  in  the  United  States,  and  pre-eminently  in 
the  West,  we  are  hardly  aware  of  the  facts  in  the  case. 
Especially  is  this  so  when  we  look  to  our  own  State  or 
neighborhood  experience  for  a  verification  of  the  idea 
that  money  is  really  becoming  too  plentiful  to  be  profi¬ 
table  to  its  holders.  But  the  fact  is  verified  by  the 
way  that  railroads  are  run  into  unpopulated  and  even 
wild  countries ;  where  towns  spring  up  like  magic  with 
all  the  modern  equipments  of  banks,  loan  agents, 
trust  companies,  and  brokers  of  all  kinds,  whose  busi¬ 
ness  from  the  beginning  is  to  prey  upon  the  settlers, 
farmers,  and  working  people  generally. 

No  waiting  now  for  slow  accretions  to  the  towns  and 
cities,  caused  by  the  development  and  building  up  of 
the  surrounding  country,  as  of  yore  !  They  rise  up  in 
the  wilderness,  “  as  from  the  stroke  of  the  enchanter’s 
wand,”  and  make  men  fairly  giddy  by  their  speculative 
glare  and  gambling  policies  with  money.  In  further 
confirmation  of  this  fact  that  there  is  too  much  repre¬ 
sentative  value  afloat,  it  is  estimated  on  good  authority 
that  over  two  million  dollars  a  week  have,  for  the  past 
two  years  or  more,  been  coming  into  the  United 


31 


States  from  England  alone  ;  while  Germany  and  other 
foreign  countries  have  also  sent  large  amounts  of 
capital  here  to  he  invested  in  various  ways.  All  this 
goes  to  show  that  money  seeks  its  increase  where  in¬ 
trinsic  values,  its  correlative  cause,  are  also  on  the 
increase. 

In  new  countries,  where  labor  and  natural  resources 
join  hands  in  the  first  and  almost  spontaneous  pro¬ 
duction  of  real  or  intrinsic  values,  these  values  in¬ 
crease  faster  in  proportion  to  the  needs  of  the  sparse 
population  than  do  the  representative  values.  Hence 
in  new  countries  interest  and  wages  are  always  higher 
than  in  old  ones,  because  money  and  labor  are  always 
scarcer,  even  if  speculation  cut  no  figure  in  the  demand 
for  money.  No  people  whose  whole  labor  returns 
them  nothing  more  than  a  bare  living  can  pay  interest 
on  money.  And  nations  approach  nearer  and  nearer 
this  point  as  their  increasing  populations  approach 
nearer  and  nearer  to  the  productive  limits  of  labor 
and  nature. 

Hence  the  old  world’s  plethora  of  money  cannot  ex¬ 
pect  to  draw  much,  if  any,  interest  out  of  the  scanty 
life-portion  of  their  laborers;  and  thus  we  may  see 
why  the  capital  of  old  countries,  in  excess  of  their 
real  needs,  and  its  true  use  as  a  medium  of  exchange, 
seeks  new  ones  for  investment,  in  other  words,  specula¬ 
tion. 

Aside  from  all  the  facts  and  inferences  leading  up 
to  these  opinions  relative  to  money,  there  is  one  thing 
that  the  money  power  generally  is  agreed  upon,  and 


32 


that  is,  that  you  cannot  hurt  gold  by  demonetizing 
silver.  In  fact,  it  is  the  general  opinion  that  it  will 
enhance  gold  values  at  least  as  much  as  it  diminishes 
•  silver.  But  there  are  one  or  two  considerations  which 
we  may  believe  are  overlooked,  even  by  those  who  so 
unanimously  agree  that  gold  will  come  unharmed 
out  of  this  repudiation  of  its  ancient,  continuous  and 
almost  world-wide  relation  with  silver.  There  is  an 
educational  consideration  which  will  have  a  tendency 
to  destro37  the  people’s  faith,  not  only  in  one,  but  in 
both  of  these  gods  of  barbarian  heritage. 

It  has  ever  been  easy  enough  for  men  to  believe  that 
paper  money  must  be  redeemed  somewhere,  at  some 
time  or  other,  with  silver  and  gold,  and  must  therefore 
be  a  mere  credit  money.  Metal  money  has  always 
appeared  to  the  masses  of  men  to  be  solid  value,  and 
its  chink  has  been  the  voice  of  the  god  of  worldly 
power,  not  alone  to  the  thoughtless  and -miserly,  but 
also  to  many  of  the  wise  and  good  of  all  past  ages. 
Yet  the  downfall  of  idolatry  is  always  assured  when 
you  have  proved  to  the  heathen  that  even  one  of  his 
many  images  is  a  deceptive  heritage  of  dead  material, 
void  of  the  attributes  ascribed  to  it.  Jupiter,  the  king 
of  the  gods,  and  Juno,  the  mother  of  finance,  reigned 
over  the  Roman  Pantheon  for  untold  ages ;  but  when 
her  virtue  became  doubtful,  lo,  the  sacrifices  to  him 
were  a  thing  of  the  past !  And  so  the  god  of  gold  may 
cease  to  receive  the  homage  of  men,  when  they  learn 
that  the  divinity  of  value  resides  not  in  the  gold  and 
silver.  There  is  a  sort  of  eye-opener  that  has  not  been 
counted  on  in  this  repudiation  of  silver  values. 


33 


Another  result  of  the  downfall  of  idolatry  has  always 
been  to  cause  men  to  worship  a  truer  source  of  life  and 
its  blessings.  And  so  it  might  come  to  pass  that  if 
this  fetish  of  metal  monej^  were  destroyed,  labor,  the 
true  source  of  value  and  sustenance,  would  take  a  more 
exalted  place  in  the  world’s  estimation. 

There  is  a  growing  conviction  among  laboring  men 
everywhere  that  they  have  over  them  an  inexorable 
master,  whose  power  to  shape  their  own  and  their  chil¬ 
dren's  destiny  is,  by  its  ubiquitous  control  of  modern 
methods  of  production  and  distribution  of  their  own 
needs,  becoming  more  and  more  absolute.  There  is 
also  a  general  distrust  of  all  political  and  financial 
movements  as  being  merely  selfish  schemes  of  special 
classes  to  cheat  the  masses.  These  considerations, 
with  the  known  advantages  which  legislation,  by  dis¬ 
honoring  law,  has  given  to  such  methods  in  the  past 
— and  with  this  “  Gold-standard-of -single-gold-value” 
edition  of  the  same  sort  coming  on — these,  together 
with  the  inevitable  friction  which  inequalities  of  rights 
and  moral  status  must  produce,  will  rouse  and  keep 
alive  in  every  honest,  independent  soul,  that  natural 
agitator  of  the  rights  of  man,  the  love  of  liberty  ! 

But  it  is  evident  that  liberty,  without  a  reasonable 
amount  of  property,  and  a  tolerably  sure  way  of  sus¬ 
taining  life,  is  only  a  name.  And  this  is  a  truth  that 
society  and  civilization  must  ever  confirm.  Because 
these  must  recognize  the  right  of  man  to  the  fruits  of  his 
own  industry, and  conform  their  customs  and  laws  to  this 
fundamental  principle  in  equity  of  all  social  compacts. 


34 


Hence,  anarchy  and  monopoly  are  extremes,  fatal 
alike  to  liberty  and  property.  The  anarchist  arrogates 
to  himself  lihei’ty  to  destroy  life,  and  the  monopolist 
arrogates  to  himself  property  to  destroy  liberty.  There¬ 
fore  society,  as  a  matter  of  self  preservation,  has  the 
right  to  protect  itself  against  either  one  or  both  of  these 
extremes.  And  this,  if  nothing  else,  precludes  the  right 
of  society  to  be  bound  to  any  system  of  finance  or 
fetiches  of  metal  value,  controlled  by  monopolies  that 
appropriate  the  fruits  of  industry,  and  thereby  control 
the  lives  and  liberties  of  the  people. 

The  cream  of  all  social  advantages  is  the  right  of  a 
man  to  use  his  own  private  judgment,  and  to  possess 
his  own  earnings.  In  other  words,  liberty  and  pro¬ 
perty,  as  a  result  of  man’s  own  thought  and  industry, 
are,  under  social  forms  of  government,  the  highest 
attainments  possible  to  the  economy  of  human  life. 
The  equal  right  of  all  mankind  to  these  is  reason’s 
remedy  against  tyranny;  and,  if  individuality  and 
social  union — nature’s  basis  for  all  human  life — survive 
until  that  life  fulfills  its  capabilities  on  earth,  then  must 
liberty  and  property  prevail  at  last. 

Hence,  in  a  people’s  government  like  ours — the  truest 
sponsor  for  this  highest  aim — there  must  be  power 
and  purpose  in  the  common  mind  of  the  great  body 
politic, to  form  its  own  judgments,  to  labor  for  its  own 
property,  and  also  to  maintain  the  right  to  both  judg¬ 
ments  and  property. 

JOSEPH  ALFRED  WHEALDON, 

Nasel,  Washington  State. 


